Tourists have been urged to check their vaccine records as popular ski resorts across Europe have been hit with a measles outbreak.
Belgium’s Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp raised the alarm last week after it issued a statement warning of the epidemic.
Italy, Austria and Switzerland were listed among the European countries struck by the viral infection – which are among the most popular for skiing.
‘Get vaccinated before traveling to any of these countries, unless you have had measles in the past’, the statement advised.
Cases of measles have already been reported ski hot-spots, such as in the Dachstein region in Austria, which is popular among winter sport fanatics thanks to its snowy slopes.
Tourists heading to these ski destinations have been urged to be particularly cautious, as the virus can spread easily in crowded areas.
Measles is a highly contagious airborne infection which usually causes rashes, a cough and high fever, according to the NHS.
But the disease can quickly escalate to severe symptoms in one in five un-vaccinated people – leading to pneumonia, brain swelling and death.
Tourists have been warned over a measles outbreak across popular European ski resorts
Italy, Austria and Switzerland were listed among the European countries struck by the viral infection
Measles is a highly contagious airborne infection which usually causes rashes, a cough and high fever
Younger children are more at risk of suffering from complications, as well as people with a weaker immune system.
The Institute of Tropical Medicine has advised to ‘give an early measles vaccine to infants between the ages of six and 12 months who have not yet received a measles vaccination, before they travel to one of the above countries’.
The warning over the potential spread of measles in ski resorts comes months after international health agencies raised the alarm over a surge in the virus following a decline in vaccination rates.
In the past year, more than 10million people have contracted measles, rising from 8.6million in 2022, according to a joint report from the CDC and World Health Organization.
At the same time, the report found vaccine rates remained low, following a major plummet in 2021.
In 2023, the virus caused 107,500 deaths, mostly in children under five, since children, whose immune systems are fragile, are particularly in danger when infected with the disease.
Younger children are more at risk of suffering from complications
Since the Covid pandemic, the number of people skipping vaccinations has been increasing. The new report found only 83 percent of people worldwide in 2023 got the measles vaccine – mostly unchanged from a record low in 2021.
Experts suggest this has to do with people missing doctors appointments during Covid, and because of increased vaccine hesitancy, in part promoted by major figures like Robert F Kennedy Jr – the newly nominated head of the Department of Health and Human Services.
In response to this trend, and the increase of measles, WHO and CDC officials reiterated the best way to prevent the disease is through vaccination.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said: ‘Measles vaccine has saved more lives than any other vaccine in the past 50 years’.
In 2000, measles was declared eradicated in the US, following a decades long vaccination campaign that began in 1978.
Other countries in the six regions the WHO covers pledged to make similar gains through vaccinating their citizens- aiming to get 95 percent of them vaccinated.
This 95 percent standard is the goal for herd immunity – representing the number of the populous that needs to get vaccinated in order to stop the spread of an infectious disease.
